Saturday 22nd February 2025

Sandra had invited me on a trip to Umandawa Global Buddhist Village today, which was lovely. We went in the school van, as Madonna from Texas, USA, and Agatha and her daughter, Sohalia, joined us. It is a very interesting place, as it is spread across 70 acres, being envisioned as an aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly 'walking monastery', with hamlets, gravel paths, gardens, organic farms, ponds and larger bodies of water, and sculptures.

It was another incredibly hot day today, to the point where when I had to take my sandals off as we entered the complex, it was too hot to put my feet on the ground, which I remembered happened to Valerie and me last year in Batticaloa, when it was so hot that when we took our shoes off to enter the mosque there, we could barely walk across the marble-tiled pathway to the entrance of the mosque. We really have had some scorching weather over the past few days!

I certainly found the Global Buddhist Village aesthetically pleasing, and extremely environmentally friendly, with some beautiful buildings and sculptures - not least the largest statue of a reclining Buddha in Asia (and possibly in the world!). I took quite a few photographs today, with a few of plants, including the green pepper tree plant, showing its peppercorns. I really liked the concept behind the place, although the Buddhist monk who founded it sounds a bit controversial.

I got back to find that the pool was empty, but when I went back a few minutes later to swim lessons had started, so I had to postpone it until later. It didn't happen in the end, as Tharika appeared with her daughter, Evinka, so we had a chat, and then went to Pizza Hut for some dinner. It seemed a bit strange being at another Pizza Hut, after my farewell lunch with Yad in Nuwara Eliya, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of their pizzas!

Today's photographs were all taken at Amandawa Global Buddhist Village.










Comments

  1. CharlesFebruary 23, 2025 at 12:42 AM

    Given the Buddha teaches loss of self, it is perplexing the way he has been attributed such monumental proportions! I wonder how the village can have been founded by a single (humble) monk?

    ReplyDelete

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